


Coffee Shop

by likingandloving



Series: Sweet and Bitter [1]
Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 10:53:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5245625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likingandloving/pseuds/likingandloving
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leslie works late nights at a coffee shop and a cute guy enters during her shift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coffee Shop

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So this is based off of a prompt, but I decided to switch it around a bit. Hope you guys like it!

It was weird how things could get so _quiet_. Usually her surroundings were full of bustling students, mixed conversations about what happened last night and class requirements as she sat in the quad, sifting through notes and making her binders for finals in the upcoming two weeks. The quiet hum of the refrigerator and the slight hiss of the espresso machine was the only thing keeping her company on this cold November night. She wrung her fingers, biting the bottom of her lip as she watched the snow fall in flutters against the glass window.

It’s not like Leslie _wasn’t_ thrilled to be the only person assigned on the late night shift. This shift paid _twice_ more than being on the day shift, there wasn’t much to clean and not much customers came in at this time and on most times she was still up at this time anyway, so why not make a little money out of it?

But she wasn’t going to deny that it got pretty lonely on most nights.

She sighs, glancing around at the empty shop before going back to her History binder, reviewing her color-coded notes and little post-its on the Societal Impacts of the American Revolution for her exam.

She’s halfway through with the British Empire when the little ding of the front door draws her attention. A guy, probably around her age, comes in brushing snow off his jacket and shoots her a swift smile.

“Hi! What can I get you?” She smiles at him and she’s not going to deny at all that he’s pretty cute, with his unruly hair and the light brown of his eyes. He was tall, thin and taut, his jaw defined and a little bit of scruff lining it.

She’s never seen him enter the coffee shop before (because if he has, she’d definitely remember) but at the same time, Leslie could swear he’s seen him somewhere before.

“Can I have a brewed coffee with two sugars?”

“Yeah, no worries. For here?” He nods, pulling out his wallet as she punches his order into the cash register. She quickly glances up at him, trying not to stare too much at the way he runs a hand through his messy hair, rogue snowflakes falling from his head down to his shoulders.

“That’ll be three ninety-five. Your name?” She asks, taking his crisp ten-dollar bill.

“Ben.”

 _Ben._ She resists the urge to repeat it again, just to see how his name would play out on her lips because she’s not going to be creepy. Cute guys come into the coffee shop all the time, what made this one different?

“Alright, Ben. Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll bring you your coffee?” He smiles again, nodding before taking a seat right by the window, the one that was facing the wildflower painting that her boss Ron had put up the year before that she loved.

She brews his coffee and adds two sugars, as requested, before pouring it into a paper cup with ‘Ben’ written on the side in Sharpie. Leslie had contemplated putting a smiley face next to his name but maybe it was too much. He didn’t seem like the type of guy to particularly care about poorly drawn smiley faces on his coffee order. Instead, she just scribbles his name in her neat handwriting before capping it off and bringing it to his table.

“Hey.” She calls out softly as he looks up from his book, smiling at her briefly before reaching up to grab the coffee.

“Thank you so much…” He squints at her nametag. “… Leslie.”

His eyes brighten as he takes a quick sip of the coffee and sighs happily and she can’t help but smile a little wider because who cares that she took a little bit more time to brew his coffee?

It was obviously paying off.

“This is amazing. Thank you.”

“No worries.” She smiles at him one more time and maybe her cheeks are practically glued in a smile when she tries to fixate herself once more on her notes.

The next few hours pass in silence, with Ben quietly highlighting and writing notes in between sips of coffee as Leslie just attempting to catch glances out of the corner of her eye. It’s hard to focus on the impact of slavery when there’s a cute guy in the corner stealing away all her attention. He’s been alternating between economics and accounting books all night and it seems like he goes to Indiana, like her. She wants to ask him, maybe initiate a conversation, but chances are he’s just here for a late night cramming session so what’s the point?

Eventually, she hears books slam and bags zip. Her eyes wander over to Ben, whose ears are currently plugged by his earphones and her heart sinks because she was hoping to at least ask what he was doing in the coffee shop so late. He wanders over to wear she’s seated by the counter and she holds her breath.

But instead of talking to her like she hopes, he drops something into the tip jar before the corners of his lips curl into a friendly smile, waving once before leaving, his head bobbing along to the music in his ears.

The door dings with his exit and she tries not to feel bummed by him leaving. Leslie glances at her watch. It was almost midnight, which means that she could probably start to close up with no worries of anyone else coming in.

She cleans the tables and wipes the counters and sighs to herself when she notices Ben’s empty coffee cup. He’s not the first cute guy to come in, so she throws his cup in the trash and closes up for the night, trying not to think of the way his hair would stick up and that smile that almost melted her heart away.

It almost works.

\---

She has tried not to think about it too much.

The past two days of not having work were almost torturous. There were so many times that she was so tempted to check her Facebook and search for the Ben in the coffee shop, like there weren’t a million Bens on Facebook to sift through. So instead she’s resorted to every form of distraction humanly possibly, from buying two more birdhouses to add to her current collection of five (Ann was already threatening to throw out half of them) and rereading all of Hilary Clinton’s autobiographies to keep her mind occupied.

This is stupid, going to work and always half-hoping that Ben was going to show up. Ben wasn’t going to show up because he was just a one-time customer and it was obvious that he just needed a quiet place to study and the library was already closed at that time.

At least that’s what she tries to tell herself, until Ben comes in again during her shift.

“Hey.” Her eyes almost bulge out of her head when she sees him, that smile on his face and his hair all messy.

“Oh hey. Ben, right?” She asks, as if his name and face hasn’t been seared into her memory for the past two days.

And great, she probably sounded like a complete creep.

“Uh yeah, that’s me.” He seems genuinely surprised at the fact that she remembered his name and she tries to tamper down the giddiness that she feels because there’s no reason to be giddy. He was just being nice.

“You’re Leslie, right?” She nods, trying to will her cheeks not to blush.

“So, what’ll it be?”

“I’ll have a brewed coffee with two sugars.” He presses a five-dollar bill into her palm. His fingers slightly brush against her skin, calloused and rough, and she tries not to imagine literal bright yellow sparks flying in the empty space between their skins. 

He takes his seat by the painting and she brings him his carefully brewed coffee. There are already books scattered on the table, all with complicated titles and Leslie has to admit she’s actually a little impressed by it all.

She can initiate a conversation on it. It would be harmless.

“Uh, math major?” She asks; placing his coffee down on an empty space not occupied by a book.

“No, accounting actually. My finals in the next week are all majors so studying has really been busting my balls.”

“Do you go to Indiana?” See, she’s just trying to make polite small talk; there was nothing conspicuous about it.

“Yeah, I do actually. I think I see you in the quad all the time, reading political biographies.”

“Oh.” She never told any guy she dated that she’s read a very shocking number of political biography until at least the third date, when she was sure that they were just going to smile and nod and not mention it again. Well, not to assume that she and Ben are going to date.

She feels her cheeks warm up and makes her move to exit, nervously wringing her fingers against the end of the tray. It’s a miracle she’s been able to say five words to him without completely screwing up. (She had a tendency to ramble and be extremely inappropriate when she’s nervous. Luckily he didn’t bring up his pants or else she must just admit that she was checking out the way his butt looked in those pants.)

“Well, okay, I hope you enjoy your coffee--“

“If you have the time, read Nancy Pelosi’s biography.” Nancy Pelosi? He knows who Nancy Pelosi is?

“I’ve actually already read it.” She says sheepishly.

“Oh, well then, if you have any good biographies for me to read, feel free to let me know.” He smiles at her before going back to his own reading material.

She smiles and nods before going back to the counter when another customer is waiting impatiently by the register. When he brings his cup back for a refill and excuses himself to go to the bathroom, she quickly grabs a post-it and scribbles something on it.

Ben comes back to his table with a fresh cup of coffee with a sticky note that simply reads: _Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned_

\---

The next time Ben comes for coffee, there’s the Clarence Darrow book sitting among his many books and she briefly wonders if it’s possible to be this happy over someone taking her book recommendation.

“Was it good?” Leslie asks as she places his coffee in front of him.

“I’m not done yet, I’m just about to read on the Pullman Strike case, but so far yeah, it’s really good. I’m glad you suggested it.”

“Well, he was one of the more brilliant lawyers and I always liked the way that he championed those who could have never champion themselves in the Gilded age.”

“Yeah! I actually was really intrigued by the way he championed for the lower classes but also took a lot of cases for money. I thought that it was a perfect juxtaposition for him.” He spoke with such passion and intellect that it was clear that he shared her love of politics.

“Oh and---“

“Hey Leslie?” The new trainee Jerry, who is holding a broken coffee pot in one hand and has his other hand stuck in a Folger’s jar, interrupts their menial conversation. “Can you help me here? I did something to the coffee machine and now it’s making weird sounds.”

God, if she could just strangle him…

“Dammit Jerry.” She mutters, cursing the fact that Ron had put him as a trainee on her shift instead of Donna’s. (She would have to march into Ron’s office later and demand that he can’t put someone as incompetent as Jerry during her shift. Maybe if she lectures him long enough, he’ll eventually relent and move Jerry. Luckily, she has throat lozenges in her book bag.)

“Sorry about that.” She sighs, clearly unhappy that they can’t talk more.

“It’s okay, you have work. We can always talk again later. You know where to find me.” Ben sends her off with a brief smile and waits for her to get to the counter before turning back to his books.

She doesn’t get to talk to Ben for the rest of the night, since Jerry manages to keep her occupied the entire night. He leaves while she’s trying to tell Jerry how exactly to heat pastries without always burning them and her heart sinks a little when she turns to see his usual spot empty.

“I’m going to go clean up the tables. You count the cash in the register, I’m sure you can handle that, right?” Jerry chuckles, as if he’s incompetence hasn’t been a giant pain in the ass this entire night.

“Yes, boss.”

She wipes down all of the tables in the café, purposely saving Ben’s table for last.

“Hey Jerry, you should probably head out for the night, I’ll close up.” She calls out to the back, wincing when she hears a loud clang. It would probably be a good idea to get Jerry out of here before he broke something else.

“Oh, okay. Thanks Leslie, I hope you have a good night!” Leslie doesn’t really register the rest of Jerry’s goodbye because she’s cleaning Ben’s table and there’s a post-it stuck with neat, sharp handwriting stuck to the surface.

_Theodore Rex. I think you’d like it._

\---


End file.
